C-K’s Work/Life: Gary Doyle of So There!

C-K Work/Life features stories about the many hobbies, passion projects, side gigs, interests and hustles that C-Kers pursue in their lives.

Gary Doyle is the group creative director/senior vice president at Cramer-Krasselt. Gary works on Porsche, Edward Jones, and the Alzheimer’s Association. He also is an adjunct professor at the Loyola University School of Communications, and co-hosts the internationally-acclaimed podcast “So There!”.  

When and why did you decide to create this podcast?

I have this really weird way of communicating with a good friend of mine, Tom Keramidas, who’s an executive producer at Leo Burnett. We basically never talk, just leave each other lengthy voice mail messages back and forth. That’s our method of communication. So one day we said, this could be a podcast. Each one of us just taking turns blathering on for a few minutes at a time about inexplicable human behavior, advertising, music and sports. And thus “So There!” was born.

What inspires you to continue this passion project? What’s the most challenging part about it?

Inspiration is a lofty word. It implies some kind of purpose. Our podcast has no purpose, except maybe getting our own jollies — our aspirations are not high. In terms of challenges, I’d say at some point we’re left searching for new ways to describe Menards ads, or why people ride an escalator all the way down but then walk the last two steps. But we persevere.

How has this passion helped you in your life at C-K? How has your life at C-K informed your podcast?

Life at C-K informs many an anecdote in the podcast, though I’m not going to say which ones. You’ll have to guess for yourself. In terms of how the podcast helps me at C-K, clients are intrigued when they hear I have a podcast. Some of them actually subscribe for some reason.

What is the best piece of advice you received about your career?

Don’t cry, dry your eyes, never let up. Forgive but don’t forget, keep your head up. Tupac mentored me in so many ways.

Anything else? What did I miss? What else would you like people to know about your podcast?

Our analytics tell us we have listeners in Great Britain, Ukraine, India, Ireland, Brazil, Canada, Russia, Jamaica, Belgium, France, South Africa, Colombia and Japan. I am not making that up. Tom and I are thinking of launching a global tour but neither of us have the vacation time currently.